Session Seventeen: The Man of Law's Tale

Paix

Maurice and Renee continue their wanderings around Paix before eventually returning to the Truce Inn. There, Maurice plays dice with some of the locals, while Renee chats with Guillaumette at the bar. 

Maurice plays to lose, thereby ingratiating the locals to him. He then talks to them about Constance and Lord Arthur. He learns that Constance was a very serious, very stern, but basically decent child. Her family passed away last winter from some kind of illness, but there was no hint of foul play. The locals seem to like her, but most do not know her all that well. They also say that they were concerned about her marriage to Lord Arthur, because the man was known to be a bully and a thug. They confess that, if Constance had to kill Lord Arthur to defend herself from his cruelty, they would not be surprised. They would also be very sympathetic.

Renee asks Guillaumette about the valley’s wine, as she suspects that this is the vector by which the knights, the baroness, and her daughter were poisoned. She learns a great deal about the local wine trade, but nothing actionable.

After spending a lot of time cooling their heels in the Truce Inn, Maurice and Renee decide to travel to Grandcamp to catch up with Sir Henri and his party.

Lady Valerie

Lady Valerie

Sir Henri, Pierre, and the squires introduce themselves to the Lady Valerie, who is quite intrigued with them and is very happy to make their acquaintance. They notice that Lady Valerie’s left hand is heavily bandaged, and that she wears leggings and an undershirt of very thick fabric under her gown. Curious, Pierre convinces her to let him remove the bandage. He discovers only a tiny scrape, and yet the wading is absolutely soaked with blood.

Lady Valerie explains that she wanted to get a closer look at a bird who was nesting outside the library window. She tripped, fell, and scraped her hand, which bled profusely. She indicates that this is normal for her, and that her brother Alexandre and the house physician, Dr. Poitier, gave her hell for it.

While Pierre rewraps the wound, Sir Henri talks to Lady Valerie, first giving her his condolences and then asking about the murder of her brother. Among other things, she mentions that she rather liked Lady Constance, and thought that she was a good match for her brother. She says that the first she heard of the murder was when Constance started screaming the morning after the wedding. She doesn’t think that Lady Constance did it, but her father, Baron Stephane, has his own ideas about what happened.

Speaking of the baron, a courtier comes running out of the castle and informs Sir Henri that Baron Stephane requires his presence in the receiving hall. As Sir Henri, Pierre, Jim, and Jules follow the courtier to the hall, Pierre privately tells the knight that he believes that Lady Valerie suffers from hemophilia.

The Kitchen

Ines, Head Cook of Castle Maisy

Across the pond, in Maisy, the other group finds their way to the castle kitchens. They find it abuzz with activity, as it appears the staff are in the middle of preparing a late afternoon meal for the baroness. A hard-looking older woman presides over the frenetic activity, hounding the others and ordering them to work faster. As the group stare from the doorway, the woman pushes aside one of her subordinates, chides him for cutting the parsnips unevenly, and loudly says that she will do it herself.

This ends abruptly when, in her haste, she slices her finger with the knife. The air in the kitchen briefly turns to that of worry and concern. One of the other cooks fetches bandages as the woman squeezes her injured finger cand calls for some salt.

The group seize this moment to make their way into the kitchen proper to start asking questions. Garnier eases things by seeing to the woman’s finger and tightly bandaging it with an only slightly dirty kitchen rag. He notices that the cut is small, but that it seems to bleed profusely. He wonders, silently, if the woman suffers from hemophilia.

Magnus makes things harder by wandering around in the kitchen and tasting the soup. The woman, who the group now know is named Ines, yells at him to stop what he’s doing and get out. Magnus more or less ignores her.

While Ines is distracted by Magnus’ antics, Andre purloins a bottle of wine.

Ines tells the group, in no uncertain terms, to get the hell out of her kitchen and not to come back until after the dinner rush. She says that she’ll answer their questions then, if she feels like it.

At that point, Several servants enter the kitchen to take the food up to the baroness’ table. Moments afterward, a courtier also arrives and says that the baroness has asked them to dine. The group follows the courtier and the servants. Magnus snags a roll on the way out.

The Baron

Baron Stephane Coligny, Lord Grandcamp

Sir Henri, Pierre, and the squires meet Baron Stephane in his receiving hall. The baron is a formidable man who makes his displeasure with the group—and with Alexandre hiring them—well known. He confirms that Sir Henri was once recently Squire Henri before saying that he recently received a raven from a cousin in Brienne. Said cousin is none other than Sir Charles du Theobard, who accuses Sir Henri and his friends of sullying his honor and stealing an ancestral sword. Sir Henri demurs and says that he did not see what became of Sir Charles’ sword after their encounter in Brienne.

The interview goes poorly from there, with the baron insisting that Constance is the culprit, and that Sir Henri is wasting his time. The baron does finally agree that if Sir Henri brings him substantial evidence that someone else is the murderer, he will grant him another audience, but, until then, he wants the group to leave his castle post haste.

The interview ends abruptly, and the courtier dutifully escorts the group out to the courtyard. As they leave, they see a small figure lurking just outside the receiving hall. It is clear that this figure has heard every word and is now following them. Sir Henri realizes that it is none other than the Lady Valerie.

The Baroness

The group is brought along a walkway above the castle courtyard. Below, they see a dressed down Lady Josephine training alone with various weapons and target dummies. Even from a distance, they can tell that she is furious about something. Sabina is suitably impressed when the lady, with a cry of rage, stabs a plank so ferociously with a dagger that the point erupts from the far side of the wood. 

Continuing on, the group is brought to a dining room, where Baroness Louise is preparing to eat with several of her knights. The baroness is quite friendly and very generous with the food and wine from her larder. She tells the players that her daughter has already explained what they are doing in her castle, and that she will put them up while they conduct their investigation. She also asks that, should she be attacked by Grandcamp, that the group stand in defense of Maisy.

Garnier, at the far end of the table, attempts to get into the good graces of Jeanne, one of the baroness’ knights. Jeanne rebuffs his interest and also his suggestion that she “try Sabina.” Undaunted, Garnier presses onward, talking about the night of the mass poisoning. He wonders, out loud, if the knights that died were the best of the household or the worst, and opines that perhaps they were not in the good graces of the baroness.

This causes Jeanne to loudly tell him to shut the hell up. She then tells him, more quietly, that she will talk to him later.

At the other end of the table, Magnus’ capacious appetite seems to have caught the attention of the baroness. The two of them engage in an impromptu eating contest, with both the mercenary and the baroness shoveling an ungodly amount of food into their maws. Magnus soon succumbs to an upset stomach and a food coma. The baroness smugly cements her victory by plucking an olive off of Magnus’ plate and eating it.

After dinner, the group is escorted to several small cells, which they learned once belonged to the now deceased knights. Magnus washes himself and then passes out on his bed, snoring. Sabina and Andre head off to the kitchen to speak with Ines. A short time later, Dame Jeanne arrives to speak to Garnier.

Baroness Louise Santignion, Lady Maisy

The Scene of the Crime

In the courtyard of Castle Grandcamp, Lady Valerie apologizes for how shabbily her father has treated the group. Sir Henri tells her that apologies are not necessary, as he sends for his horse and prepares to leave.

Just at that moment, Maurice and Renee arrive from Paix. Reunited, the company members fill one another in on what they have discovered. Lady Valerie, dazzled at seeing a woman who is also an adventurer, interrupts the conversation to pepper Renee with questions.

In her excitement, Lady Valerie asks if the group would like to look at the murder scene. She says that she can take them into the tower “the back way” so that her father would be none the wiser. The group, desperate for a chance to gather evidence, accepts.

Lady Valerie leads them up to the third floor of the tower, to a door that is closed but whose latch has been splintered and broken. Screwing up her courage, Lady Valerie says that beyond that door are her brother’s chambers. She says that she will go with the group, even though the sight of the room makes her uncomfortable.

Inside, they see the bridal bed is covered in a large quantity of dried blood. Leaving Lady Valerie hanging around by the door, the rest search the room. They find the following:

• Sir Henri notices that there is a human-sized void in the bed, in which no blood has flowed. He guesses that this means that Constance was indeed asleep, and only woke up after the murder had been committed.
• Sir Henri also finds the hunting dagger, encrusted with blood, lying just under the bed.
• Maurice finds a pair of goblets and an ewer, all of which contain the dregs of red wine. He also notices that all have a peculiar, foul smell. The group agrees that the wine was likely drugged.
• Pierre searches one of the wardrobes and finds a red silk kerchief stuffed into a boot. The kerchief is caked in dried blood.

Since the door was locked, the group assumes that the murderer must have either had a key or gotten into the room other means. Maurice tests this theory by hopping out onto one of the window ledges and trying to climb the outer wall of the tower to the fourth floor.

This…does not go well.

Maurice’s fingers slip on the mossy stones of the tower. He manages to control his descent somewhat, so that he is able to grab onto the ledge of a second-floor window as he falls past it. The sudden stop badly strains his arm, leaving Maurice in too rough a shape to pull himself to safety.

In a panic, the rest of the group try to quickly think of a plan to retrieve Maurice. Renee throws down a rope, but Maurice is in too precarious a place to try to grab onto it.

Lady Valerie takes charge and leads the group down to the second floor. They barge into chambers much like the one just above, except that it is entirely empty of furniture. Just as Maurice’s fingers are slipping off of the windowsill, Renee and Pierre grab ahold of Maurice and pull him to safety.